Flu Season
by Illusive Writings
Summary: From an anonymous prompt from castlefanficprompts: Beckett is sick, but manages to hide it from Castle and the boys until she collapses at the precinct. Either Pre-Caskett, or when they were split up. For #CastleFanficElectionDay


**Flu Season**

Her head was killing her. It had started with a slight pounding in her left temple, then it expanded to behind her eyes, a dull, pulsating kind of pain that distracted her and made her squint her eyes to focus on the computer screen in front of her, only to upgrade to a full blown migraine by lunch time. Light hurt her, noises made her flinch, even her skin hurt, the fabric scratched her like sandpaper.

Then came the fatigue, the bone-deep weariness typical of high fever, that coupled with the headache crushed her like a sledgehammer.

But there was a murderer to apprehend, a vile person that had killed an elderly couple in a mugging gone very wrong. She had to catch him, and soon, or she wouldn't be able to rest easy. So she endured, she swallowed enough Tylenol to make the next few hours bearable and manage to work. She bit the bullet, clenched her teeth and worked through it. A microscope virus caught in a fortuitous way wouldn't knock her out, she was tougher than that, she could endure it. It was the flu season, hundreds of cops had it in New York, she wouldn't tap out while most of her colleagues managed to hold on.

"Beckett, are you alright?"

Castle's voice startled her and she jolted on the chair. "Yes Castle, I'm perfectly fine. I just want to catch this murderer and go home."

"Are you sure? You look like you've seen a ghost. Have eaten anything since breakfast?"

She shook her head, but the movement sent a sudden spark of pain spiking up her neck and head. She felt like someone was driving an icepick in her temple. The screaming, drunk suspect in Holding wasn't helping at all. "No, I wasn't very hungry."

"You want anything? I'm going to the coffee shop down the block, you look like you could use a blueberry muffin."

She wasn't really hungry, but Beckett knew Castle had sensed something was wrong with her and wouldn't let her go, no matter what she said, so she agreed. "Alright, a muffin would be good." After all, taking meds on an empty stomach wasn't exactly the best. Flu and heartburn didn't really go good together.

But despite her best efforts to keep up the appearance and go on with her work, when they finally caught a break in the case and she made to stand up from the chair, she moved too quickly. She hadn't taken a step yet and she felt her knees wobble and her vision blurred at the edges. She held herself up by leaning heavily on the edge of the desk, trying to grip it tight but her fingers were weak and their hold on the fake wood surface wasn't enough to support her when her legs failed her.

The last thing she could do before she blacked out was uttering a mild curse. Far in the distance, muffled by the rumbling rhum of her blood in her ears, she could hear Castle calling for help and felt his arms wrap around her midsection to hold her up before she fell on the floor, then nothing. Total dark oblivion.

When she regained consciousness, an indefinite amount of time later, she wondered where she was. She was somewhere quiet, too quiet. But after that first observation, the headache came back in full force. Wherever she was, lying on her side, she cringed and curled over herself. The pillow beneath her head was soft and slightly fuzzy, while the blanket she was wrapped in was warm and made her feel comfortable and safe, despite the splitting migraine and the slight nausea that made her guts roil around.

"Ugh…"

"Hey, welcome back!" It was Castle, speaking softly. He kept his voice down, as if he knew she had a migraine. "You've been gone for a good thirty minutes."

She dared to open an eye and noticed they were in Captain Montgomery's office, the blinds shut and the door closed. "Thirty minutes?" Her voice came out raspy and hoarse. "What happened?"

"You fainted, that's all. You've been running a fever for a few hours now, why haven't you said anything?"

She groaned again. "That obvious?"

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "I have a daughter, I know the symptoms of the flu. Why do you think I kept handing you so much water?"

She sighed. "I should have realized you know. Ryan and Espo?"

"Worried out of their minds, but they went to apprehend the suspect. Come on, I'll tell them you woke up and then I'll take you home, you need to rest."

That he did. Despite her weakness that forced her to lean on him as they walked from the precinct to the car and from the car to her apartment, Castle made her change in her comfortable home attire - and he didn't even take a peek, she had to give him credit for that - then took on the mission to make her feel better. Within half an hour since they had set foot in her apartment, Castle had made her tea then had rushed to the store down the street and bought all the ingredients for his famous chicken noodle soup. Famous, according to Alexis, he assured her. Along with that, he had carried an array of comfort items that he vouched for being miraculous cures for the flu.

So as he moved in her kitchen, she napped on the couch, wrapped in her favourite throw blanket and cuddled by Peter Gabriel's soft voice coming from his iPhone as he listened to his latest album, along with the smell of the soup stewing in the kettle. She drifted in and out of consciousness at random times, but just being at home, she felt a lot better. Still weakened by the high fever that wouldn't go down even with Tylenol, but a lot better.

Castle also was being great. He tried to make as little noise as he could, periodically checked on her if she needed anything, kept her cup of tea filled and made sure she kept herself hydrated.

Last time anyone had taken care of her like that, her mom was still alive. Even Josh had dismissed her when she had texted him to tell him she didn't feel good and was going home from the precinct. He just told her to sleep it off and she'd be better in a couple of days. But he had important surgeries in the next week and he couldn't catch what she had, so she would have to take care of herself on her own.

Castle didn't care about it. He didn't have problems touching her, checking for her temperature and keeping her entertained while he cooked. She had to say he had a great singing voice.

In the end, he ate the chicken noodle soup with her as they watched the evening news. After they had finished, he proposed a movie, but she was too tired and her eyes hurt, she could barely keep her eyes open as it was, she wasn't sure she could watch a whole movie without collapsing on the couch the most ungraceful way.

With a soft smile, Castle told her to prepare for bed and that he had a solution for that. The moment she dragged herself out of the bathroom, she found him sitting on the chair he had dragged from her desk, beside her bed, with the copy he had autographed ages ago for her mother of "Flowers For Your Grave". The cover was a little charred from the explosion earlier that year, but she had kept it nevertheless, it meant too much to her.

Shaking her head, she slipped beneath the thick duvet of her bed. She noticed another cup of steaming tea and a glass of water on the bedside table. "Tell me the truth, Alexis doesn't allow you to read to her anymore so you're sublimating on me just because I'm too weak to say no?"

He chuckled. "Almost. Alexis loves when I read to her, but the last time she was sick was when the last Harry Potter book came out, I miss it so… here I am."

"If you look hard enough you can find Harry Potter, if you want to read it."

"I think this book carries more meaning for us than Harry Potter, don't you think? Close your eyes now, let work my magic."

As he started reading, Beckett found herself lulled by his deep voice, the perfect tone he had perfected through years of public readings and storytime with his daughter. She didn't last longer than chapter two, but he helped ease herself in a fitful sleep that she knew wouldn't be possible in normal circumstances. Incredible how the little things he did for her had made what from the beginning had looked like one of those nasty sickness that would bench her for a week a lot better.

When she woke up, the next morning, drenched in sweat but with the headache reduced to a minor nuisance, she found the strength to take a shower and change clothes and once she was done, she found Castle already bustling in the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

"Hey…"

He turned around and smiled when he saw her. "Hey, good morning! Feel better?"

"Yeah, a bit." She pulled a bottle of Tylenol from her medicine cabinet beside the fridge and popped a couple of capsules in her mouth. "But I'll have to call in sick, I'm in no condition to go to work, not yet."

"Montgomery called yesterday when you were out, he said he'd kick you back home if you dared to show up this morning. Sit down, breakfast will be ready in a moment."

With a sigh, she sat at the kitchen counter. What had she done to deserve such a treatment? And he wasn't even her boyfriend.

Officially.

He could be though.

Another sigh.

If only…


End file.
